Wild or Holdover?

[DaveR]

I fished a NW Jersey stream today, known for it's potential for wild browns, bows, & brookies. Caught 5 bows nymphing on tan caddis larvae and GRHE's. Four of the bows were dark colored with a very bright red stripe down the side. Two were spilling "milk" from their underside. The fins were not clipped on any fish and they all ran 12-14" in size. Three of the five fish were caught well off the beaten path and good 1/4-1/2 mile away from any road through swampy marsh and thick brambles, so if they were stockies at one point, they definitely migrated to their current lies.

Were these fish stream bred or holdovers?

 

[jcw3]

I have often wondered just how a (none native) fish got to certain places. I know when I use to work for the park service we would do wild brookie stream shocking to do fish counts and all.

I was amazed we would hike for hours, sometimes being 2-8 miles from any road, and we would find rainbows, browns, and EELS in places they should not have been. Though they were far an few, how could they get there.

I also fish a stream that is about 2-3 miles up from stocked waters. This is a mountain stream with numerous waterfals that are over 3-5' in some sections, I have yet to figure out how rainbows get up to these wild brookie waters.

One of Gods great things he blessed us with I guess.

I find alot of these fish are stream bred from holdovers. I feel many of these fish have been rebreed to the point some many times they are getting about as close to wild as they can get.